Any suggestions for getting over achilles tendinitis? (Read 2110 times)

After almost two weeks of doctor-ordered non-running, PT, ultrasound, NSAIDs, ice, stretching etc, still only marginally improved soreness. I'm pretty sure the initial cause was new insoles in shoes that had previously caused minor achilles problems when they were brand new at the end of a mild build up in mileage (and by mild, I mean from 8 to 15 miles).
Anyone have any words of wisdom? I'm hoping for something like, "yeah, mine was the same and miraculously after 13 days, I woke up and it was completely healed."
Getting very fed up with this.

Anti-inflammatories can be counter productive and cause your body to take longer to heal.
You probably need to stay off the roads longer, but might want to consider getting into the pool for some aqua jogging. Mind-numbingly dull, but at least you are moving.

My one and only bout of Achilles tendonitis took about 2 months to fully heal, and another 2 months of phantom pains after that. I did two weeks of no running at all, then 3 weeks of barely running--like 2 miles at a time on a treadmill, really slow, a few times a week. Then I gradually built back up, all very easy miles. And I iced it every night. After the achilles pain and inflamation subsided, I also worked on stretching my calves because I think tight calves were what caused it in the first place.

I've been battling this for quite some time (since last years CMM). Followed a similar path with ultrasound, PT and stretching. I don't like to use advil so I skipped all of that. This combined with rest (mostly non-impact excercise) and cross training seemed to get me back on the road.
What I did find that worked great for me was active release therapy. I asked at the running stores about someone reputable and was introduced to Dr. Pain. It is not a comfortable process but worked great for me. I needed about 5 sessions and now I work the calves with The Stick and self massage. So far so good and being a bit smarter about my trianing has helped keep me on the road.
Good luck with this injury as it, simply put, sucks.

"He conquers who endures" - Persius "Every workout should have a purpose. Every purpose should link back to achieving a training objective." - Spaniel

http://ncstake.blogspot.com/

chrimbler

posted: 5/13/2008 at 9:28 AM

I've had this problem a few times, I did no running for a week then did some slow/mileage reduced running for a week, used the stick and ice. Seems that nothing but time will help, but I do think some SLOW/ short runs are beneficial. Also get a heating pad or 2 and warm those bad boys up before you even step out the door.

Thanks all for your BTDT and advice. I don't know if it's wishful thinking, but it does seem better today.

finney

Resident pinniped

posted: 5/13/2008 at 2:25 PM

Don't stretch, or do so only VERY gently. Putting force on something that's already injured is not what you want to do. If you want to keep it loose, do some ankle circles or similar. I actually GOT a case of Achille's tendonitis from stretching once. It was minor, but as soon as I stopped stretching, it stopped hurting.

Apologies for dredging, but I searched and this thread was the best I could find ...

I developed what appears to be Achilles tendinitis five days ago. Mileage over the past couple weeks has been slightly higher than usual, but the Achilles didn't bother me AT ALL until I was in the midst of three days' walking around on hilly and sandy ground (and carrying 20 pounds of golf bag).

The tendon actually feels reasonably good after I rest it, like when I get up in the morning or after a nap. After five days of rest, it's been getting less sore only in the past day or two (although there's still some low-grade pain). But I tried running today: utter fail, and the Achilles was more painful the rest of the day. There's some swelling, maybe a third of the way up from the heel to the bottom of the gastroc, that is pretty tender to pressure.

Anyway, what's the current thinking on how to resolve it? I want to get back to training, obviously, but I also don't want to make this worse/chronic.

"I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."

I aggravated an achilles tendon running a very hilly half marathon in VFFs this fall. I used rest, ice, NSAIDs (Naproxen sodium in my case) and avoiding challenging runs, e.g. no incline running, downhills only, walk the inclines. Took a bit of time to stop feeling any twinges during the day. HTH

bob e v 2014 goals: keep on running! Is there anything more than that?

Complete the last 3 races in the Austin Distance Challenge, Rogue 30k, 3M Half, Austin Full

I had this problem 2 weeks before the Chicago Marathon. Talk about panic inducing.

Jeff (on this board) recommend eccentric calf exercises. They worked like magic. I did them after every run (2 sets of 15 on each leg) and they literally saved my race. I ended up running a 2:58, a 32-minute PR, and had no calf pain during my marathon. I have done them after nearly every run since then as preventive maintenance.

Apologies for dredging, but I searched and this thread was the best I could find ...

I developed what appears to be Achilles tendinitis five days ago. Mileage over the past couple weeks has been slightly higher than usual, but the Achilles didn't bother me AT ALL until I was in the midst of three days' walking around on hilly and sandy ground (and carrying 20 pounds of golf bag).

The tendon actually feels reasonably good after I rest it, like when I get up in the morning or after a nap. After five days of rest, it's been getting less sore only in the past day or two (although there's still some low-grade pain). But I tried running today: utter fail, and the Achilles was more painful the rest of the day. There's some swelling, maybe a third of the way up from the heel to the bottom of the gastroc, that is pretty tender to pressure.

Anyway, what's the current thinking on how to resolve it? I want to get back to training, obviously, but I also don't want to make this worse/chronic.

Clive:

Have we talked about this before? If we have, did what I had suggested fail? Somehow I thought we had...

I had suffered from Achilles issue for years. I really thought this was it for me with running simply because I just couldn't run--got to the point where I had no choice but consider surgery. What really triggered was my partner, Lorraine Moller, working on my subconscious. I went to Boulder to visit her; I went for a run and, after 10 minutes, I had to turn around and walk back. She worked on me the next day and I went for a run that evening and that was the first time in 2 months that I could cover an hour--with some pain but at least I could run. So I got more serious about fixing it.

For what I've come across and tried; first of all, you have to understand that there's virtually no blood supply in tendon itself. With injury or inflamation, your body tries to increase blood supply by growing blood vessels in/around it and apparently that's what hurts. Supposedly, some Swedish doctors developed a procedure to block all those developing blood vessels and it showed a marked improvement with pain. However, because it's blocking new blood vessel development, the tendon itself deteriorating in the future is also possibility. I found out that not running didn't really help. Just as you found out; it's fine while not running but it just didn't get rid of it and it'll come back as soon as you return to running. And I found out that, even if it hurts, if you continue working on it--just by running slowly--it went away more quickly. I massaged mine, even though it really hurt, and icing afterwards, really helped. Also, eccentric resistance exercise (simply heel raiser with up quick, down slow motion) really helped. At first, I couldn't raise with one leg (with sore Achilles) so I would go up with both feet; come down slowly on one leg. This really helped. Switching to low heel shoes and running on trail also helped in my case. It hurts at first; but I could see a marked improvement soon afterwards.

With mine, I felt it was a mistake to take some time off. I did that and I've wasted years. It was when I switched to "it's only pain..." attitude and stuck with it, that it really improved. I also found out that, while some degree of stretching is helpful (low heel shoes), excess stretch is not. Hill running is almost impossible because of extra stretch; but step running actually helped (the angle of your ankle is pretty much locked). I got a special shoe with mid sole all the way from toe to heel with the same thickness--in other words, it'll stretch your heel whenever--and stretch out my Achilles whenever I wear these and walk around actually really helped.

Personally, I believe had I taked these steps and basically ignore pain and hadn't take time off and come back only to find out the pain was still there, I wouldn't have wasted so many years.

wow...aftah new years, i thought i needed time off to let my achillies heal(heh)....so, i decided to take 2 weeks of of runnin and do othah shit. biggest mistake evah and it made it worse. i started feelin bettah aftah i said screw this and started runnin again. i still feel it but nothin like before. i do what i can and not what i can't. heh...it's only pain. run around it.